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AFIICIN IPFRENIICS SYHE 



READ AT 



THE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONVENTIUxN, t 



HENRY HUGHES, 




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OF MK. HEMKY HUGHES, 



OF MSSSISSIPFI. 



RExiD BEFORE THE SOUTHERN CONVENTION AT VICKSBURG, 

MAY 10, 1859, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE AFRICAN 

APPRENTICE SYSTEM. 



Pending the discussion of the resolutions of Mr. 
Spratt, of South CaroUna, in favor of the repealing of 
the laws of Congress prohibiting the African Slave 
Trade, by Mr. Henry Hughes, of' Mississippi, read the 
following Eeport. 

Mr. President : 

At the last meeting of the Southern Convention, the 
following resolution was adopted : 

"Resolved, That a committee of s^ven be appointed 
to report to the next Convention — 

"1. Whether, since the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution, the peculiar labor system of the Unit 3d States 
South has progressed. 



2 

"2. '■^Vhether the relations of * master to servant' is 
now identical with that originally contemplated by the 
Constitution. 

^'3. Wjiether, if th3 labor sj'stem has essentially pro- 
gressed, and the relation of master and servant is not 
i le.itical with thg oiijinil ralation, will the elevation 
of African Apprentices^ into what may bs called War- 
ranteeism, instead of fc^lavery, be, after a term and pro- 
gress of twenty years, the elevation of the Apprentices 
into a labor-system contomplited by the Conststution." 

As chairman of the Committee, appointed in pursu- 
ance of this resolution, the undersigned begs leave to 
submit the following Feport and Resolutions : 

When the Constitution of the Unit3d States was 
formed, our negro-labor sj'stsm, was ia theory and prac- 
tice, Slavery ; its ultimate abolition was generally ex- 
pected ; the Constitution itself bears evidence of this, 
and so do the public debates and private correspondence. 
The general belief was, that the spirit of the Great 
Revolution would make the servants as free and inde- 
pendent of the masters, as it had made the masters free 
and independent of the King. Nor was this all : thero 
can be no kind of doubt that out* labor-system was, at 
the formation of the Constitution, a system of inhumanity 
and injustice. On this point all testimony ig concurrent. 
One error of the Revolutionary times, however, was as 
extraordinary as evil. The people and the people's 
statesmen knew truly two relations of servant to mas- 
tar, and therefore, deemed that only two labor-sys- 
tems Were possible. One was Slavery and the other 
free labor, consequently, while negro slavery was truly 
deemed to be inhuman and unjust, free labor was deem- 
,ed to be its only substitute. Progress from slave labor 
was deemed a progress into free labor, and the destruc- 
tion of one system the construction of the other; hence 
the negro, when no longer a slave w.is to be a free hire- 
ling. It never occurred to the great Revolution's great 



lialnkers that bct^voen freedom at one oxtrcme, and idn- 
very attha othGr. the goldsn rnsan is libartv, that liber- 
ty IS the order of slavery Avithout its tyranny, and tlio 
immunity of freedom without its license, that in short, 
liberty is freedom inside of order. It never occurred to 
the tliinkers of the Revokition th : t there was a third 
labor-system, that this, whi'e not free labor and not 
slavery, combined all of their effects and none of their 
defects, and bore to them the relation which liberty 
bears to freedom on the one hand and slavery on the 
other. The Revolution's error, therefore, was that it 
knew slave labor and free labor, but ignoied hberty 
labor. The three labor-sj'stems, possible in civihzation, 
are however so distinct that every citizen can appre- 
ciate their essential differences. But since power to be 
economized must first bo systematized, what is a system? 

A system is nothing more than power acting in order. 
The States' economic power is the masters' and servants'. 
Hence, if they act in order, the action will be nothing 
more than their association, adaptation, and regulation, 
for these are the elements of order. And as of these ele- 
ments the chief is association, each labor-system will be 
characterized by the character of its associates and their 
association. 

In free labor — 

1. The nature of the association of master and servant 
or capitalist and laborer, is not public but private. The 
association in law is not a pubhc but a private relation. 

2. The motive to the association is desire. This is 
desire of either subsistence or bettered condition. 

3. The origin of the association is a private contract. 

4. The sanction of the association is government en- 
forcement or civil damages. 

5. The continuance of the association is not warranted 
or systematic. The labor-movement is as the labor- 
motive, and this is desire. But in civihzation, desire of 
subsistence or of bettered condition, is not and cannot be 



systeniizcJ. Hence, imperfect association, imperfect 
adaptation, and imperfect regulation are essential imper- 
fections of free labor. The laborers work as long as they 
please and not as long as they ought. 

6. The value of the association is the private contract 
or labor-obligation. This value measures the master's 
interest in the servant's existence and progress. The 
more valuable the labor-obligation, the greater the mas- 
ter's interest in the laborer. The labor-obligations how- 
ever are for short terms and not capitahzed or made ne- 
gotiable like other valuable obligations, but are for terms 
not systematic but accidentallj^ short or long. The labor- 
obligations are of course less valuable because not capit- 
alized or made negotiable. They also are less valuable 
because virtually terminable at the desire of the laborer, 
because the sanction of the obligation is civil damages, 
and laborers are not systematically responsible in civil 
damages, since the laborers are not the class who have 
but the class who have not. 

7. The interests in the association are antagonistic. 
The servant's interest is the highest wages, and the mas- 
ter's the lowest wages. The two are in competition 
against each other. So too, the servant's treatment is 
proportioned to the master's interest, the master's interest 
is proportioned to the servant's value, and the servant's 
value is proportioned to the term of service, but this is 
variable and not systematic. In free labor therefore, the 
master takes systematic interest in the servant's existence 
and progress, or his subsistence, security,* health, educa- 
tion, enjoyment, morahty and religion. Such is the 
rule. 

8. The numbers of the association tend not to suffi- 
ciency but to deficiency or superficiency. As a rule, 
there is in free labor always either a surplus or a scarcity 
of laborers. The cause is that the labor-obligations are 
not capitahzed or negotiable, and therefore cannot be 
transferred from one to another capitahst, and according to 



those laws of demand and supply, which realize the 
highest appreciation and therefore the best treatment of 
the laborer. In free labor therefore, the laborers must 
have the desire to go, the knowledge to go and the abil- 
ity, before they go to where most in demand. But the 
desire, knowledge and ability of the laboring class^ are 
proverbially not" systematic. Hence the free labor circu- 
lation is essentially not systematic, and either a scant or 
surplus population is the rule or reahzation. 

9. The distribution of the association is not publicly 
but privately adjudicated. The adjudicator of wages is 
not a disinterested third person. Sometimes the masters 
and sometimes the servants decree what shall be the 
wages : if labor is deficient, the servants ; but if superfi- 
cient, the masters. 

10. The wages of the association are decidedly just, 
underjust, or overjust. Justice is not the rule of distri- 
bution. Interest distributes. Hence the wages of the 
association are accidentally at, under or above the stand- 
ard of subsistence ; if under the standard, the reahzation 
is either unhealthy criminal want or mortal want ; but if 
over the standard, either waste, idleness or accumulation, 
accidentally. 

Such are the peculiarities of free labor. 
Slave labor resembles, in many essentials, free labor. 
The pecuharities of slavery are these : 

1. The nature of the association of master and servant 
is Mke that of free labor — not pubhc but private. The 
master's relation, therefore, is not that of a public officer 
with public powers, rights, duties and responsibihties for 
pubhc purposes, but that of a private citizen to a private 
subject. The slave's master, therefore, is not a magis- 
trate, because not a responsible deputy of the State's just 
and regulated powers. 

2. The motive to the association is not as in free labor 
— desire, but fear. Desire is the hireling's, but fear is 
the slave's labor-motive. The free system is voluntary 



labor; the fekve system la compiilt-ory labor: one's es- 
sence is competition, iind the other's is c )mpulsion. 

3. The origin of the association is not as in free labor, 
a private contract, but a public custom. According to 
custom, slaves are such l)y captivity, nativity or purchase. 

4. The sanction of the association is not as in free 
labor, the public power, but the private power. The mas- 
ter's private power was slavery's hideous peculiarity, and 
produced all its horrors. At the formation of the Con- 
stitution, our negro labor-system was slavery, and the 
master's powers were sovereign, irresistible, unlimited, 
and irresponsible. There might perhaps have been some 
statutes prohibiting the wanton slaughter of slaves, but 
such prohibitions were rather for the sake of public mor- 
als than the slave's protection. 

5. The value of the association is the laborer himself, 
and not, as in free labor, the private contract or labor- 
obligation. In the free system, the labor-obligation is 
property ; but in the slave system, the laborer himself is 
f)roperty. The man himself is a negotiable chattel ; his 
soul is ignored ; he is a brute ; he can be sheared like a 
sheep, branded like a mule, yoked like an ox, hobbled like 
a horse, marked like a hog, and maimed like a cur ; he 
can be butchered like a beef, skinned Hke a buck, or 
scalded like a shoat ; he can be hurled into a fishpond to 
fatten and flavor lampreys, or smeared with tar and set 
on fire to light ungodly dances. 

6. The continuance of the association is systematic. 
This is slavery's eminent advantage over free labor. The 
hireling's association is a variable, whose functions are 
climates, soils, idiosyncrasies, race, education, morahty, 
and religion. The free laborer thus works when he 
pleases, as long as he pleases, for whom he pleases, and 
for what he pleases. But the slave works not as he 
pleases, but as his master pleases. The slaves thus are 
economically so continuous, adaptable and regular, that 
strikes and idleness are virtually eliminated. Indeed, 



slavery is nothing more than labor obeying unchecked, 
unregulated, and irresponsible capital. 

7. The interests of the association are sometimes an- 
tagonistic, as in free labor, and sometimes syntagonistic 
or harmonious. For instance, if there is such a superfi- 
ciency of slaves and such a deficiency of subsistence, that 
the subsistence is worth more than the slave, then his 
interest is antagonistic to his master's. Such in Africa is 
regularly the case. There a slight surplus of subsistees 
makes a great scarcity of subsistence. It, therefore, is 
economically the direct interest of the headman to kill 
the subsistee and save the subsistence. Hence, slaves in 
Africa are sometimes slaughtered by the thousand. As 
life is cheap and living dear, the slaughter is a savage 
saving. But if there should be such a demand for Afri- 
can labor that the subsistee would always be worth 
more than the subsistence, then the destruction, or even 
the discomfort of the slave in Africa would be against 
the owner's interest, and the slave's treatment would 
be proportioned to the slave's improved value. To 
Africa, therefore, the most sublime philanthrophy will 
be such a United States' demand for Africans as will 
make them worth on their own coasts not five but five 
hundred dollars. When Africans in Africa are worth 
five hundred dollars, then butcher chieftains, savage 
calculators, black and bloody economists will not cut 
three throats to save one barrel of rice, nor spill blood 
to punish the spilling of oil. Cannibalism would be 
economically suppressed; for if captives were worth 
five hundred dollars, their flesh would be worth about 
three dollars per pound. But even chieftains or wealthy 
headmen couUi not afford to eat meat worth three dollars 
per pound, and thus captives would be sold to the traders 
instead of being slain for the feasters, and would be cot- 
ton-pickers and christians instead of chops, cutlets and 
steaks. Regular human sacrifices also would cease, for 
even our wea thv churches could not afford regular of- 



8 

ferings so costly. It also is utterly impossible that 
ftluvvs Y/ortli five hundred dollars could be slaughtered 
at the master's grave. But more than all, if men in 
Africa were worth five himdred dollars, there would be 
a powerful check to th? chieftains' petty wars. Not 
even a savage headman would willingly risk in battle 
soldiers worth five hundred dollars each, and the breed- 
ing of slaves in peace would be more profitable than 
the capture of slaves in war. Indeed peace would be 
proportioned to its value, for such at last is the princi- 
ple which will ultimately solve the world peace-prob- 
lem. Hence, in Africa, as elsewhere, to increase the 
master's interest, or the slave's value is to abolish canni- 
balism, capricious killing, human sacrifices, caprici- 
ous murder, and x^etty wars. The formula is, that 
man's suffering, or in short savageism, is universally pro- 
portioned to man's value; the discomfort is directly as 
the depreciation, and the depreciation is diversely as 
the demand for laborers. Hence, the less demand, the 
more discomfort; the less worth, the more woe. For in 
every community are but two classes; one are those 
wdio have, and these are the capitalists; and the other 
those who have not, and these are the laborers. But 
their only possible means of subsistence are wages, and 
the wages of laborers are and must be proportioned to 
the demand for laborers. The laws prohibiting the 
slave trade have therefore been the curse of Africa, be- 
cause they have checked the demand and so depreciated 
laborers, that in Africa a stalwart man may now be 
bought for five dollars ! A human life worth five dol- 
lars ! ! Can it then be wondered that negroes in Africa 
are butchered like hogs when negroes are worth no 
more than hogs. Africans therefore must be econo- 
mized before either civilized or christianized. They, 
when worth three hundred dollars in Ashantee, will 
cease to be savages; when worth five hundred, they 
will cease to be heathens; and when worth seven 



hundred, they will be ahno.st equals of the eiihght- 
ened American neorro. 

8., The numbers of the association accidentally 
tend to sufficiency, deficiency and superficiency. If 
the supply, of slaves is from captivity, the tendency 
is superficiency ; if from nativity, to deficiency ; and 
if from purchase, to sufficiency. 

, 9. The distribution of the association is not in free 
labor, 1 6t public but private. In slavery, the master 
distributes; but in free labor, the master sometimes, 
Sometimes the servant and sometimes both concurrently. 

. 10. The wages of the association arc accidentally 
just or nnderjust. 

Such are the ten peculiarities of slavery, the system 
opposite to free labor. 

The third, or composite labor-system, embodiesall of 
the efiects and none of the defects of the other two. It 
bearo to them the same relation which economic liberty 
bears to economic freedom on one extreme, and econo- 
mic liberty on the other. It therefore is not free labor, 
and not slave labor; but is liberty and labor. It in- 
deed is a system of so many felicities tha^ the more pa- 
triots, philanthropists and benign philosophers con.-ider) 
the more they will applaud it. And as the composite 
liow is virtually the negro labor-system of the United 
States, ?outh and therefore familiar to us all ; its happy 
peculiariities may soon be noted, for they are not less 
distinct than delighti*ul. 

1. The nature of the association is not private, like 
that of free and slave labor, but public. The servants' 
relation to the master, therefore, is not that of hirelings 
to the hirer, nor that of slaves to the owner, but that of 
magistrates. This has been jutlici dly decided. By ju- 
dicial decision the master is not a private but a public 
person. The State to whom economic allegiance for 
the subsistence of all is as well due as political allegi- 



10 

ance for the security of all, associates, adapts and re- 
gulates the master's powers, rights, duties and respon 
sibilities. And as a magistrate is nothing more than 
one having, for public purposes public powers, rights 
duties and responsibilities, the master in the United 
States South, is a special subordinate magistrate, quali- 
fied for the conservation and administration of special 
public economy, special public peace, and special public 
health. 

2. The motive to the association is not desire as in 
free, nor fear as in slave labor, but duty. The law of 
this duty is that everybody ought to work. Such is 
the law of nature. But both the free and labor systems 
realize a su plus of laborers, and are therefore against 
the law of nature, because the surplus , laborers are ne- 
cessarily unemp'oyed. and cannot do their natural duty. 
Hence, in civilization the three kin-s of labor are — vol- 
untary labor, whose motive is desire; compulsory labor, 
whose motive is fear; and perfunctury labor, who^e mo- 
tive is duty. 

The origin of the association is not a private contract 
as in free, nor a public custom as in slave labor, hut a 
naturjxl law. This is God's favorite statute, that every- 
body ought to work. The law is, in short, the assis- 
tance of all for the existence and progress of all. In 
this obligation of all to work, the obligor is the State 
and the obhgee the worker. The labor-obligation is 
the laborer's economic alle-giance. As this oblig tion 
is valuable to the State, in order to realize its highest 
appreciaton, and therefore its best con.-ervation and ad- 
ministration makes negotiable 6y transferrable the obli- 
gition. It thus is capitalized, and therefore subjected 
to the laws of capital. Then the State entrusts to the 
masters these capitalized labor-obhgations. Thus the 
masters are the !>tate's deputies, public officers or magis- 
trates to administer in responsibility to the State the 
public powers and duties transferred to them. 



11 

4. The sanction of the association is not as in slave 
labor — the private po^Ye^, but as in free labor — tlie pub- 
lic power. The master is a magistrate of limit d ju- 
risdiction. All punishment therefore must be magiste- 
rial. It must be begun in 1 .w, oontinued in law, and 
ended in law. The rule of the master's power is jus- 
tice. The State's jurisdiction is over high crimes and 
misdemeanors, and the master's over petty offences 
only. 

5. The continuance of the association is systematic. 
In this system, as ii^ free labor, what is owned is the 
lubor-obligation. It, in this' system however, is syste- 
matically owned, aQd therefore may ba systematically 
administered ; but jn free labor is irregularly owmed, 
and therefore irregularly adrain'stered. Free labor, 
tlierefore, can never grow cotton, because only systema- 
tic labor can cultivate a syjsteniatic crop. England at 
length recognizes this simple principle, and now by 
means not of free laborers, but of pawns and slaves, has 
recently and alarmingly succeeded at Cape Coast Cas- 
tle, to cultivate cotton. 

G. The value of the association is not the laborer 
himself, as in slavery, bat the labor-obligation as in free 
labor. The value owned characterizes each system. 
In s-avery the value is in the laborer himself, qut ii^ 
the other two systems is in lh3 labor obliguti n. 

7. The interests in the association are systematically 
syntagonistic, and not as in slave labor, sometimes an- 
obligatic and sometimes antagonistic. The master's in- 
terest in the labor-obligation is continuous, 

8. The n ambers of the association tend to systematic 
sufficiency, and not as in free and slave labor, to defi- 
ciency and superficiency, accidentally. The only possi- 
ble method realizes this systematic sufficiency of popur 
lation. This method is the capitalization of the laborr 
obligations. When labor-obligations are capital, they cir^ 
(culate according to the laws of capital and hoek the hifj;l.ir 



est appreciation, hiysteniatic sufficieiic}- of i)opulatioii, 
This method is the capitalization of the labor obligations- 
When labor obHgations are capital, they circulate accord- 
ing to the laws of capital, and seek tlie highest apprecia- 
tion. Systematic sufficiency of population, however, is 
perfection; superficiency is the starvation of laborers, and 
deficiency, the waste of capital 

9. The distribution of the association is publicly adjudi- 
cated, and not as in free labor, privately adjudicated by the 
masters only, the servants only, or by both concurrently^ 
nor as in slavery, by the masters only. The rule of the 
public distribution is justice, the ngent of tho distribution 
is the State, and the act of distribution is the ordinance 
jof work and wages. This ordinance is that regulating 
fhe negroes' hours of service, holidaj^s, and food, raiment"; 
habitation and peculium, and the other elements of their 
wages. As justice is the rule of distribution, the Avages 
distributed can never vary below the standard of subsist- 
ence. The State, which is the organ of justice, fixes the 
standard of subsistence, and the memljcrs of subsistees 
are locally adjusted accordingly. 

10. The wages of tho association are systematically 
just, and not as in free and slave labor, accidentally just, 
under-just or over-just. 

But what is this third labor system? What is this com- 
posite system which warrants so many excellencies, which 
has tlie freedom of free labor Avithout its license, and the 
order of slaA^er}" Avithout its tyranny? If not free labor 
find not slave labor, Avhat is it ? It is order applied to the 
'States Avorking forever. It is liberty labor. It is Avar- 
ranted association, ada])tation, and regulation. It is the 
labor system of the United States South, it s wakrantee- 

ISM. 

The labor system of the United States South, began in 
slavery, and progressed. This progress Avas from a sys- 
tem which the Constitution contemplated and disapproA'- 
ed. From the system contemjtlatcd by the Constitution, 



13 

our negro labor lias progressed to a S3\stein in wliicli no^^' 
the negro virtually has all the rights justly clue him. 
We may safely challenge any jurist to point out a single 
fundamental right now due, and not enjoyed by our mis. 
called slaves. " They have not, it is true, some peculiar 
franchises. This privation, however, is due to two facts, 
one temporary, and the other eternal. The abolition agr 
itation is the temporary fact. It justly disqualifies the 
negroes to enjoy certain rights of education, assemblage, 
and locomotion. The eternal fact is the Diversity of 
llaces. This fact necessitates caste for the puiit}^ and 
progress of races. But if the purity and i)rogress of 
races is the States sublimest duty, negroes must never be 
citizens, because pohtical amalgamation realizes sexual 
amalgamation. But the blood amalgamation of a superi- 
or and inferior race is degenerative, whicli is detestable, 
pernicious and danmable. Caste against ethnical incest 
and for the purity and progress of races, ought therefore 
to be the eternal fact, and negroes are never lo be citi- 
zens, for the Republic is Caucasian. 

In law, the difference between slave labor and our sys- 
tem as it was, and warrantee, or ours as it is, are as es- 
sential as indisputable. Slighter difierences under the 
Iloman law, distinguished from the slaves, the great la- 
boring class of Coloiti. Thus the learned and authorita- 
tive Guizot, says : — 

" The name of Coloni was in fact borne b}' the greater 
part of the agricultural population of the empire ; Colo- 
ni, riistid, originarii, adscrq^tii, inqtilirH, trihutarii, 
censiti, all these words meant one and the same social 
state, a special class inhabiting the rural districts, and de- 
voiing themselves to agricultural labors." 

" Men of this class were not slaves ; they even differ- 
ed ESSENTIALLY FROM THEM, and that in numerous charac- 
teristics." — 

'•Not only did the Roman law distinguish the bond 
laborers from the slaves, l)ut it often formally qualifies 



u 

the first by the iiameb' of /w?/, freehoru!' 4. Guizot't) 
Civilization, 37. 

In tjhe Ijest faith therefore, and Lti the strictest law, a 
.slight progress abolishes the legal status of the slave, and 
advances hi/n into a class of associate laborers, Avho, in 
1^0 possible way are slaves, hii|t in essentials, differ from 
slaves. 

Some, however, may deny that our labor system has 
so fi;apidly progressed as to be jHow pure warranteeism. 
Even that mi\j be gi-anted, l)ut still if within the next 
jtweiiity yeai's, our negro labor system shall have progress- 
ed into Avarranteeism, this will be a progress into a sys- 
,tem not contemplated by the Constitution. 

Wherefore, the negro labor syste;m of the United States 
;South either is now wan anteesim, or hy progress may be- 
,come such. If the S3^stem now is waVranteeism, it now 
is lawful to procure the immigration ,of Africans to be 
warrantees. But if our system naw is not .warranteeism, 
then African apprentices may be introduced, and as their 
terms of service expire, our S3^stem i^^ay progress into 
warranteeism. The apprentice's eleyation in warranteer 
ism, will be against neither the letter nor spirit of the 
United States Constitution and laws, becaus.e n,eyer con- 
templated, and therefore, never prohibited. 

Our States now have the right to procure the inmn'grar 
tion of African apprentices or contract laborers. These 
apprentices may, without a violation of the United States 
Constitution or statutes, be elevated int43 our labor sys- 
tem ; or African warrantees may be procured to immi- 
grate, wlienever any State shall enact this organic law : — - 

Be it enacted . That hereafter, our negro labor S3^stel,v 
shall be held, taken, and adjudged to be warranteeisiij, }.\^ 
•which the masters shall be magistrates, property in man 
shall be abolished, lal)or obligations shall be capitalized, 
.caste shall be maintained for the progress and purity of 
races,' the negroes never shall be citizens, the rule of the 
^distribution as of the system shall be justice, the agent 



15 

of the distribution shall be the State, and the act of dis- 
tribution shall be the ordinance of work and wages. 

The adoption of the following resolution is therefore 
recommended : 

kesolvea, That a committee of five be appointed to ad- 
dress our State Legislatures in favor of the African Labor 
Supply. 



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